Ninefold and Barrier

As we have seen in previous poems in Sanekata’s collection, ‘ninefold’ (kokonoFe 九重) was a common image associated with the imperial palace. The ‘barrier’ (seki 關) was the customs barrier at Ausaka, which controlled entry to the capital, and was frequently used in poetry as a metaphor for separation from a lover. Sanekata is engaging in wordplay given that the servant girls’ names are the homophonous Seki and Kokonoe.

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